Leading a Church in Prayer ...

... deserves thoughtful preparation.

Kevin DeYoung | posted 7/19/2010

 

Some traditions use set prayers. Others rely on extemporaneous prayers. Both have their place. But I believe what our congregations need most are studied prayers, well prepared, well expressed. These prayers may or may not be read, but will be thought through ahead of time. Publicly leading a church in prayer deserves thoughtful preparation.

2. Pray Scripture. Don't just ask God for what we want. Let him teach us what we should want.

 

4. Leave the preaching for the sermon. Don't exhort. Don't explain texts. Don't unpack complex theology. Spurgeon again: "Long prayers either consist of repetitions, or else of unnecessary explanations which God does not require; or else they degenerate into downright preachings, so that there is no difference between the praying and the preaching, except that in the one the minister has his eyes shut, and in the other he keeps them open. It is not necessary in prayer to rehearse the Westminster Assembly's Catechism."

6. Pray so that others can follow you easily. The goal is edification (1 Cor. 14:17). So don't let your sentences get too long, too flowery, too ornate. If you write out your prayers, write for the ear not for the eye. On the other hand, don't use distracting colloquialisms like, "Lord, you're so sweet."

 

 Read more at LeadershipJournet.net

A Lifelong Journey with Islam
by Chawkat Moucarry

From childhood, I've been learning about—and witnessing to—Muslims.

How should Christians who have a passion for evangelization relate to Islam? For North Americans, the question took on new urgency in the wake of September 11. But Christians in Muslim-majority societies have dealt with the question far longer. Growing up Christian in Syria gave Chawkat Moucarry many opportunities to interact with Muslims and learn about Islam. In this installment of the Global Conversation, World Vision International's director of interfaith relations describes his commitment to both dialogue and mission.

I have never understood why some people look at dialogue and mission in either-or terms. In my experience, these words belong so much to each other that they should never be divorced. Evangelical Christians (whose theology I share) have shown an unwarranted suspicion of dialogue, simply because some have used it as a substitute for mission. Not only are the two words compatible, but they must shape each other.

I have always believed in God and Jesus Christ. Growing up in a Muslim-majority society, I knew as a child that I was different, and I gradually realized that this difference implied that I had something precious to share with my Muslim friends.

Read more at ChristianityToday

10 Ways to be Your Child’s Hero

1. You are their Superman
   Every child needs to feel secure. As their Dad, they look to you to provide that feeling at all times. When those little eyes look up at you, they see Superman. Live up to the hype.
   
   
2. Open your heart
   In society, men are expected to be strong. This is a good thing. However with your children, open all of yourself to them. Show them compassion, sympathy and forgiveness. They will, in turn, do the same with their kids when they grow up.
   
   
3. Love and respect your wife
   Your children will learn how men should behave from you. Treat your wife with gentle care and the utmost respect. You can’t love your wife perfectly, but your kids should never doubt your love for her. If your children are raised in a loving marriage, they have a great model for future relationships.

Read more at AllProDad

Review: Linux Mint 9 Isadora
http://cristalinux.blogspot.com/

Linux Mint 9 (codenamed Isadora) was released just two days ago, on May 18th. You can read the official ANNOUCEMENT from their site, which explains what the main changes/improvements are, as well as highlighting the most notable new features.

To begin with, I want to stress that Linux Mint 9 is derived from Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. As a result, it gets the best from the latest Ubuntu improvements, but also suffers from its shortcomings. This is something to keep in mind before installing Linux Mint 9 and something I have also taken into account when putting together this review. In other words, I won't go into those issues explicitly, but I recommend reading the full LIST OF KNOWN ISSUES, which is part of the Ubuntu 10.04 Release Notes.

The good news is that Isadora makes up for many of Ubuntu's mishaps while keeping the best of its strengths very much alive. Before you start reading the review, though, make sure you are ready for a healthy overdose of GREEN!

Read more at The Linux Experience

Gospel Intimacy in a Godly Marriage: an interview with Alan Dunn

In Reformed Baptist Fellowship on Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:59 am

Alan Dunn is a good friend, and one of the pastors of the Grace Covenant Baptist Church, Flemington, New Jersey, and has been since the church’s inception in 1985.  He is married to Patricia, and they have three sons and one daughter.  He has recently authored the book Gospel Intimacy in a Godly Marriage: A Pursuit of Godly Romance (Pillar & Ground Publications).  He has previously written a book on masculinity and femininity called Headship in Marriage: In Light of Creation and the Fall.

Gospel intimacy . . . hmmm.  To borrow a phrase: “Is this a kissing book?”

 No, and yes.  It is a “wuv, twue wuv” book.  I use the term “intimacy” to speak of the all-inclusive nature of the one-flesh relationship.  Marital intimacy entails a profound knitting of soul.  As we pursue soul intimacy with our spouse, we will inevitably foster physical intimacy as both kinds of intimacy feed into each other.  The book focuses on relational intimacy.  However, sexual intimacy, which is integral to marriage, will emerge from a wholesome relational intimacy.  If you’re asking, “Is this a book about sex?” I would say, “Yes, but it will improve that area of a relationship only as a result of cultivating a deeper intimacy of soul.”

Thank you for the explanation.  That being so, please can you give us a précis of the book?  What can we expect to find?

I’ve attempted to look at marriage in the light of who we are as men and women created in the image of God and as those redeemed by Christ and indwelt by His Spirit.  I consider marriage against the backdrop of the Bible’s large emphases on God, Creation, the Fall, and Redemption.  After I define the couple in terms of creation and redemption, I then consider the greatest challenge to marital intimacy: our sin.  Only the gospel can address the threat that sin poses to our marital intimacy, so we need to learn how to give each other “gospel love.”  We face other challenges to intimacy as well, such as who will take the lead, how to overcome our innate selfishness, how to cultivate wholesome communication patterns, and how to grow more intimate as we age and face the prospect of death.

Read more at Reformed Baptist Fellowship

Reinventing Date Night
By: Tara Parker-Pope in the New York Times


Long-married couples often schedule a weekly "date night" — a regular evening out with friends or at a favorite restaurant to strengthen their marital bond.

But brain and behavior researchers say many couples are going about date night all wrong. Simply spending quality time together is probably not enough to prevent a relationship from getting stale.

Using laboratory studies, real-world experiments and even brain-scan data, scientists can now offer long-married couples a simple prescription for rekindling the romantic love that brought them together in the first place. The solution? Reinventing date night.

Rather than visiting the same familiar haunts and dining with the same old friends, couples need to tailor their date nights around new and different activities that they both enjoy, says Arthur Aron, a professor of social psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The goal is to find ways to keep injecting novelty into the relationship. The activity can be as simple as trying a new restaurant or something a little more unusual or thrilling — like taking an art class or going to an amusement park.

The theory is based on brain science. New experiences activate the brain's reward system, flooding it with dopamine and norepinephrine. These are the same brain circuits that are ignited in early romantic love, a time of exhilaration and obsessive thoughts about a new partner. (They are also the brain chemicals involved in drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder.)

Read more at AllProDad.com

3 Tips To Enhance Your Interview Audio With Audacity

by Ryan Dube on May. 6th, 2010

I use the Audacity audio recording software to record and edit all of my interviews. My recording setup is about as simple as it gets – an Olympic earpiece that doubles as both a microphone and an earphone, so that I can hear the person on the phone while the microphone feeds the conversation into the laptop and Audacity. This works well, and produces high quality conversations, but like anything, there are flaws in the setup that produce less than optimum conditions.

The beauty of Audacity is that you have the capability to “fix” those flaws. The three most common problems that I’m going to touch on in this post are removing background noise, amplifying voices, and integrating quality introduction with music.

Read more at MakeUseOf.com

A Summary of the Gospel  
from Jeremiah Burroughs
http://www.ligonier.org/blog/summary-gospel/

The gospel of Christ is the good tidings that God has revealed concerning Christ. As all mankind was lost in Adam and became the children of wrath, put under the sentence of death, God, though He left His fallen angels and has reserved them in the chains of eternal darkness, yet He has thought upon the children of men and has provided a way of atonement to reconcile them to Himself again.

The second Person in the Trinity takes man’s nature upon Himself, and becomes the Head of a second covenant, standing charged with sin. He answers for it by suffering what the law and divine justice required, and by making satisfaction for keeping the law perfectly. This satisfaction and righteousness He tenders up to the Father as a sweet savor of rest for the souls that are given to Him.

And now this mediation of Christ is, by the appointment of the Father, preached to the children of men, of whatever nation or rank, freely offering this atonement unto sinners for atonement, requiring them to believe in Him and, upon believing, promising not only a discharge of all their former sins, but that they shall not enter into condemnation, that none of their sins or unworthiness shall ever hinder the peace of God with them, but that they shall through Him be received into the number of those who shall have the image of God again to be renewed unto them, and that they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

That these souls and bodies shall be raised to that height of glory that such creatures are capable of, that they shall live forever enjoying the presence of God and Christ, in the fullness of all good, is the gospel of Christ. This is the sum of the gospel that is preached unto sinners.

From Gospel Conversation (1657) and reprinted by Soli Deo Gloria. 

The Tension Over Doing It All
Why are women more unhappy than ever?
Halee Scott

I began with the best intentions. A few weekends ago, while my husband was working out-of-town, I planned to work at least 10 hours on my dissertation, crank out a 1,500-word article plus two blog posts, prep for some upcoming interviews, dissect a single chapter of John Paul's Theology of the Body with a friend, and finally read (and write a book review of) three other books in preparation for an upcoming speaking engagement. While this schedule may seem crazy and chaotic to some, for me this break-necked speed felt normal until just a little less than a year ago. Anything less and I felt unaccomplished and downright bored.

Enter my daughter, Little Miss Marathon, who, on her very best days, slept three to four hours straight and ate only the minimum required for her age. For the past six months (i.e. her whole life), we'd been trying to figure out ways to get her to sleep and eat—but it seemed that all she wanted to do was go, go, go. Her energy levels made even me feel like a century-old centipede. And all this came to a roaring head that particular weekend.

After 24 hours of my baby screaming, not sleeping, and fighting food at every turn, I finally decided to step back, relax, and let her decide how much she was going to eat and when. By Sunday, she was a new baby—both her eating and sleeping had regulated themselves into a more normal pattern. On one hand, I felt successful in my role as a mother because my baby was now comfortable and content; in another sense, I felt like a failure for not doing every single thing on my to-do list.

Read more at Kyria

10 Things to do to Help Your Marriage Feel Less Stressed

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” - The Serenity Prayer, attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr

Stress is fingered for a lot of health issues in America, among them heart disease, depression, hair loss, obesity, sexual dysfunction, ulcers and hypertension. Possibly its biggest negative impact, though, is felt in marriages where stress can cause interpersonal tension and dysfunctional relationships.

But there is good news! A lot of the stress we experience in marriage is avoidable - if only we understand what’s going on. Here are 10 things we can do to reduce the amount of stress in marriage:

1. Always put your spouse first: This is a HUGE principle and key to reducing relationship stress. Ideally, husband and wife both put the other first. But the only aspect you can control is you.

Read more at All Pro Dad

Good to Great to Godly

Corporate wisdom means "getting the right people on the bus," but spiritual leadership requires something more.

Mike Bonem | posted 4/05/2010

 

"We need more structure in our decision making. Without that discipline, we'll never accomplish anything."

"We're a church, not a business. We need to rely on God. We can't operate like the corporate world."

Ever been on one side or the other of this argument? Or perhaps in the middle? The tensions are present in most churches in America today. As corporate "best practices" are applied to church life, church leaders struggle to make sense of it all.

When I worked in business, Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras was one of a handful of keep-at-my-fingertips references. It identified factors that enabled organizations to achieve superior performance over the long haul. So it was with great anticipation that I went to a Leadership Network event where Collins was to speak. In his presentation, he described the research findings that led to his second book, Good to Great. He emphasized the importance of getting "the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus." Collins discovered that strategic direction was less important than having the right leadership team. If you have the right people, they will help define the future direction of the organization. If they're in the wrong positions but have great potential and fit well, you can move them to a "different seat on the bus." But when someone is wrong for the organization, whether due to personality clashes or lack of ability, hanging onto that person can drag the entire enterprise down. Collins concluded that we should focus on senior staff as a top priority.

I nodded my head in agreement. Even though my job was in the marketplace at the time, I was also consulting with churches on pastoral leadership issues. I knew the tendency of many churches to make excuses rather than confront underperforming staff members. I remember thinking, Wouldn't the church be much more effective for the Kingdom if we got the wrong people off the bus?

Little did I know that within a year I would join a church staff and gain first-hand opportunities to test this and other business principles as a church leader. I did not foresee the challenges I would encounter.

 

Read more at LeadershipJournal.net

Wet Oatmeal Kisses
By: Erma Bombeck
taken from All Pro Dad

One of these days you’ll explode and shout to all the kids,
“Why don’t you just grow up and act your age!”
And they will…

Or, “You guys get outside and find something to do –
without hurting each other. And don’t slam the door!”
And they don’t.

You’ll straighten their bedrooms
until it’s all neat and tidy,
toys displayed on the shelf,
hangers in the closet, animals caged.
You’ll yell, “Now I want it to stay this way!”
And it will…

You will prepare a perfect dinner
with a salad that hasn’t had all the olives picked out
and a cake with no finger traces in the icing
and you’ll say, “Now this is a meal for company.”
And you will eat it alone…

You’ll yell, “I want complete privacy on the phone.
No screaming, Do you hear me?”
And no one will answer.

No more plastic tablecloths stained
No more dandelion bouquets.
No more iron-on patches.
No more wet, knotted shoelaces,
muddy boots or rubber bands for ponytails.

Imagine…. a lipstick with a point,
no babysitters for New Years Eve,
washing clothes only once a week,
no PTA meetings or silly school plays where your child is a tree,
no car pools, blaring stereos or forgotten lunch money.

No more Christmas presents made of library paste and toothpicks,
no wet oatmeal kisses,
no more tooth fairy,
no more giggles in the dark,
scraped knees to kiss or sticky fingers to clean
Only a voice asking, “Why don’t you grow up?”
And the silence echoes: “I did.”

http://www.allprodad.com/playbook/viewarticle.php?art=402

Spotting a New Leader
Understanding the traits that can identify an effective leader.
Fred Smith

The most gifted athletes rarely make good coaches. The best violinist will not necessarily make the best conductor. Nor will the best teacher necessarily make the best head of the department.

So it's critical to distinguish between the skill of performance and the skill of leading the performance, two entirely different skills.

It's also important to determine whether a person is capable of learning leadership. The natural leader will stand out. The trick is identifying those who are capable of learning leadership over time.

Here are several traits to help identify whether someone is capable of learning to lead.

1. Leadership in the past. The best predictor of the future is the past. When I was in business, I took note of any worker who told me he was superintendent of a Sunday school or a deacon in his church or a Boy Scout leader. If he showed leadership outside of the job, I wanted to find out if he had some leadership potential on the job.

2. The capacity to create or catch vision. When I talk to people about the future, I want their eyes to light up. I want them to ask the right questions about what I'm talking about. The founder of Jefferson Standard built a successful insurance company from scratch. He assembled some of the greatest insurance people by simply asking, "Why don't you come and help me build something great?"

A person who doesn't feel the thrill of challenge is not a potential leader.

3. A constructive spirit of discontent. Some people would call this criticism, but there's a big difference in being constructively discontent and being critical. If somebody says, "There's got to be a better way to do this," I see if there's leadership potential by asking, "Have you ever thought about what that better way might be?"

If he says no, he is being critical, not constructive.

But if he says yes, he's challenged by a constructive spirit of discontent. That's the unscratchable itch. It is always in the leader.

People locked in the status quo are not leaders. I ask of a potential leader, Does this person believe there is always a better way to do something?

Read more at Building Church Leaders

Show a Little Dignity

A clear and gentle answer turns aside testiness.

Gordon MacDonald | posted 11/23/2009

Years ago I met a man who spoke of becoming enmeshed in a "multi-personed conflict" that spun out of control. An aggressive spirit of hate and vengeance saturated the attitudes and conduct of everyone involved.

When I asked how he resolved the mess, he mentioned a friend who confronted him and said, "Someone has to show a little dignity in this thing. It really should start with you." Apparently, it was the perfect rebuke, and it caused this man rethink his behavior and bring some sanity to the situation.

I've never forgotten that unusual phrase—to show a little dignity—and whenever I've faced testy situations where the next word or the next deed would either fan the flame of conflict or spread the oil of peace, the reminder that my dignity is in play has been helpful.

Testy situations? Here's a real-world example.

Read more at Leadership Journal

How To Make The Best Use Of God Mode In Windows Vista & 7
By Tim Lenahan on Jan. 21st, 2010

God Mode is an interesting name for it and perhaps it should be dropped. I say this for several reasons. First of all, it’s not true to its name because it really doesn’t do anything above and beyond what Windows Vista and Windows 7 allow us to do already. Secondly, the term “God Mode”, contrary to popular thought, does not really need to be part of the process.

That being said, God Mode is a title that it has acquired and therefore it is pretty widely known as such. The God Mode hack for Windows Vista and Windows 7 is a quick and easy way to make a panel that offers quick and easy access to quite the exhaustive list of Windows settings.

Read more at makeuseof.com

The Myth of the Perfect Parent

Why the best parenting techniques don't produce Christian children.

Leslie Leyland Fields | posted 1/08/2010 10:16AM

It is time to acknowledge there is only so much influence parents can have. Scripture has taught us this all along. We are not sovereign over our children—only God is. Children are not tomatoes to stake out or mules to train, nor are they numbers to plug into an equation. They are full human beings wondrously and fearfully made. Parenting, like all tasks under the sun, is intended as an endeavor of love, risk, perseverance, and, above all, faith. It is faith rather than formula, grace rather than guarantees, steadfastness rather than success that bridges the gap between our own parenting efforts, and what, by God's grace, our children grow up to become.

Read more at Christianity Today

The Primitive Scriptures

God’s Word is fundamentally clear, and fundamentally obscene

In the sixteenth century, the Reformers declared their total confidence in what they called the perspicuity of Scripture. What they meant by that technical term was the clarity of Scripture. They maintained that the Bible is basically clear and lucid. It is simple enough for any literate person to understand its basic message. This is not to say that all parts of the Bible are equally clear or that there are no difficult passages or sections to be found in it. Laymen unskilled in the ancient languages and the fine points of exegesis may have difficulty with parts of Scripture, but the essential content is clear enough to be understood easily. Luther, for example, was convinced that what was obscure and difficult in one part of Scripture was stated more clearly and simply in other parts of Scripture.

Read more at Next

10 Reasons to Love Windows 7

You'll probably have to move to Windows 7 at some point, but there's good news: Microsoft's new OS has lots of great features. Here's what we love -- and don't love.

By Gary Olsen 09/01/2009

Unless you've been stuck on a desert island for the last six months, you know that the big buzz is the impending release of Windows 7 and its partner, Windows Server 2008 R2.

Now, I'm a guy who hates change in the desktop. I always turn on the classic view and still run Windows XP on my laptop. I don't like having to re-learn where things are and how to do common tasks.

But with Windows 7, it was love at first byte. I've been running Windows 7 since March, and I can't wait for the official release next month. Of course, there are a few drawbacks to the new operating system, and I even have my doubts about some its most touted features. So, here are my top 10 reasons why you should move to Windows 7 -- and a few notes of caution.

Read more at Redmondmag.com

I'm testing audio streaming of our Sunday sermons. The first link uses mydatanest.com as the mp3 storage. The second link uses Google Sites.

SGBC Sermon Archive: Introduction to the book of Ecclesiastes

from mydatanest.com with max free storage of 2GB



from Google Sites with max free storage of 100MB:

How a Mighty Church Falls

What it takes to prevent congregational decline.

Gordon MacDonald | posted 11/29/2009

Churches and marriages have something in common: they are both organizations. One had better know how to run them. I didn't.

It was in those "awakening" days that I was introduced to my first organizational leadership book: The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. It became one of the most important books I ever read. It opened me up to understand how people are empowered to attain objectives that are otherwise unreachable. That book probably delivered me from a first-round knockout in my life as a pastor.

Since that time more than 40 years ago, countless other writers have tried to improve upon Drucker's insights. In my opinion no one has succeeded quite like Jim Collins, who has given us books like Good to Great and Built to Last. I'm not sure that Collins had people like me in his crosshairs when he wrote those books, but many of us in faith-based and pastoral leadership have learned much from him.

Recently Collins and his team of researchers produced a smaller work titled, How the Mighty Fall, which he says began as an article and ended as a book. Being a preacher (and a writer), I understand that.

Collins says How the Mighty Fall was inspired by a conversation during a seminar at West Point where a few dozen leaders from the military, business, and social sectors gathered to explore themes of common interest. He had posed this question to the group: "Is America renewing its greatness, or is America dangerously on the cusp of falling from great to good?"

The conversation came during a break when one of the CEOs approached Collins to say: "I found our discussion fascinating, but I've been thinking all morning about your question in the context of my company. We've had tremendous success in recent years, and I worry about that."

Read more at Leadership Journal

One year of flame
taken from AllProDad

One cynic described marriage as one year of flame and forty years of ashes. I believe he thought this because he related love to feeling, not to a daily decision. The feeling of love comes and goes and comes back again, like your appetite.

The commitment of love is unrelenting and sure. Loving commitment is an act of the will - a self-disciplined lifestyle. Act in love towards your wife even if you don't always feel like it. The feeling will return in time, and flood your soul with joy.

Here are some ideas for fanning the flames of romance.

Huddle up with your wife tonight and ask: How can I love you better?

Read more at AllProDad

Christ at the Center

Michael Horton says we need to once again let our lives and churches be driven by the gospel.

Interview by Mark Galli | posted 11/19/2009 10:14AM

The phrase "making Jesus Lord and Savior" does not appear anywhere in Scripture (any more than does "personal relationship"). It assumes we are the ones who make God something. It is hard to imagine a Jew saying he made God his liberator and Lord in the Exodus. No. God made the Israelites the recipients of his saving and lordly work. So we don't make God anything; it is he who makes us his people. The Good News is not that Jesus has made it possible for you to make him Lord and Savior. The Good News is that he has actually saved and liberated you, and that he is your Savior.

Read more at ChristianityToday

Eight Great Date Nights

Need a kick-start to your relationship? Check out these ideas.

Ginger Kolbaba

4. Make it a three-course progressive dinner. Rather than going out to eat at one restaurant (how boring!), choose one restaurant for your appetizer, a different one for your main dish, then a third one for dessert. Share one course each if you're low on cash. If you have trouble deciding which restaurants, write down several options for each course, put them in a hat, and pick. As you drive to each, discuss the type of restaurant you would open and what types of each course you'd choose to serve and why.

5. Give an encore performance! Think back to one of your favorite dates or activities you two had before you were married, but that you don't get to do anymore. Was it to go antiquing? Book shop hopping? Hiking? Playing board games? Decide to do it again. While you're on the date, talk about why the date or activity was so special and what it meant to you. What did you discover about your spouse during that time that attracted you? Tell your spouse!

Read more at Marriage Partnership

The Impossibility of Thanksgiving

Why gratefulness is more gift than duty.

Mark Galli | posted 11/25/2009 10:45AM

A YouTube segment from Conan O'Brien's show entitled "Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy," with guest comedian Louis C.K., has been making the rounds. In it, Louis talks about how he was on a plane that offered in flight Wi-Fi access to the Internet, one of the first planes to do so. But when it broke down in a few minutes, the man sitting next to him swore in disgust. Louis was amazed, and said to O'Brien, "How quickly the world owes him something that he didn't know existed 10 seconds ago."

Louis then talked about how many of us describe less-than perfect airline flights as if they were experiences from a horror film: "It was the worst day of my life. First of all, we didn't board for 20 minutes! And then we get on the plane and they made us sit there in the runway for 40 minutes!"

Then he said mockingly, "Oh really. Did you fly through the air incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight? … Everybody on every plane should be going, 'O my God, wow!' … You're sitting in a chair in the sky!" And then he mocks a passenger who, trying to push his seat back, complains, "It doesn't go back a lot!"

The segment is humorous because we recognize ourselves in it. That's human nature. We take things for granted so quickly, so easily fall out of a state of gratefulness.

Read more at ChristianityToday

Published on Network World Asia (http://www.networksasia.net)

---

Fighting things like Conficker

By Kristy Westphal | Sep 28, 2009

A lot of really good research has been published about the malware like the Conficker worm, its many forms, infection vectors and speculation as to what it’s going to do next. But what seems to be missing is the operational side of fighting Conficker. What signs would you expect to see, how do you really fight it and what can you possibly do to prevent it?

Here’s a fictional case study that may be of help.

Day one: Why is my account getting locked out?

You come in to the office thinking it's just another day in the security trenches, but when you try to log on to the network you notice your account is locked out. OK, no big deal, although a little odd. You could call the help desk but you reset it yourself and then head for a cup of coffee when you realize a number of employees are wondering around mumbling about being locked out and complaining about a huge help desk queue.

OK, now something is smelling fishy. You start to check around and realize that accounts are being locked out all over the network. Time for your operational team to start doing some homework.

Read more Network World Asia

The 8 Laws of Leadership

Dr. William Cohen in his book, The Stuff of Heroes, writes that the eight universal laws of leadership are:

1. Maintain absolute integrity.
2. Know your stuff.
3. Declare your expectations.
4. Show uncommon commitment.
5. Expect positive results.
6. Take care of your people.
7. Put duty before self.
8. Get out in front.

© 2009 Family First. All Rights Reserved.

At The End, It's Relationships That Matter Most
By: Gary Oliver, Ph.D.

Several years ago I heard a convicting story of the value and importance of making family relationships a priority. A middle-class family in the 40's had set a family goal of remodeling their old bathroom. After a year of financial sacrifices they finally had enough cash for the project. At the family conference held to pick the colors and finalize the plans one of the children suggested, "Why don't we use the money for a trip and fix the bathroom next year?" Even though it involved a change in plans, everyone liked the suggestion and that summer they took the money and went to Yellowstone National Park.

With the money spent the saving started all over in order to do the postponed remodeling the next year. When it came time to hire the contractor the family's conversation drifted to how much they had enjoyed the trip to Yellowstone and the inevitable suggestion surfaced: "Why not put off the bathroom for just one more year and take another family trip?" They all agreed.

Read more at All Pro Dad

One Supplement That Works
Matthew Herper, 08.19.09, 06:00 PM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated September 07, 2009

A lot of nutritional supplements are quack medicines. Not fish oil.

In the late 1960s Danish physician Hans Olaf Bang became fixated on an epidemiological anomaly: Why did Greenland's Inuit rarely get heart disease in spite of a high-fat diet consisting mostly of whale blubber and seal meat?

"We have to go up there and solve this riddle," Bang told his prot??g??, J??rn Dyerberg, then 33 years old. In 1970 the two doctors cobbled together $6,000, flew to Greenland and collected blood samples from 130 Inuit. The cholesterol numbers were good but not enough to explain the healthy hearts. Back in the lab they used an old gas chromatograph to analyze Inuit blood. They found two chemicals they had never heard of before. The same chemicals didn't appear in the blood of Inuit who had moved to mainland Denmark and switched to a Western diet.

Read more at Forbes CEO Network

Burning Question: How Do I Future-Proof My Digital Media?

By Bryan Gardiner 07.20.09

Illustration: Don Clark

You've spent years hoarding digital media, tossing aside those flimsy tape and plastic prisons after transmuting the information into its purer form. No outdated vessel is going to prevent your endless enjoyment of its contents, right?

Think again, Highlander.

Read more at Wired Magazine

14 Ways To Affair Proof Your Marriage
By: by Brett & Kate McKay

Many people look at infidelity as if it was a natural disaster; no one could see it coming; it just inexplicably happened. Perhaps this is because we are a country that has abdicated its belief in personal responsibility. The truth is that not only can men see it coming, they can prevent it from happening as well.

It is possible to affair proof your marriage. Will it be a lot of work? Yes. But that's what you signed up for when you decided to marry your sweetheart.

What is cheating?

Before we begin our discussion on how to immunize your marriage against infidelity, we should establish what constitutes cheating. Having sex with another woman other than your wife is obviously cheating. But it's also possible to be unfaithful without having to go that far. Infidelity has shades of gray that should likewise be avoided. It is possible to be emotionally unfaithful without crossing any physical boundaries. A perfect example of this is online infidelity. More and more married men are having online romantic and sometimes sexual relationships with women other than their wife. While there's no physical contact, I would definitely say this is cheating. Men who "date" online are violating a trust that their wife has put in them to be faithful-both body and mind.

Now let's get down to business. Here are 14 ways to affair proof your marriage:

Read moreat All Pro Dad

The 2009 Defrag Shootout, and all the defragmentation utilities I can find

The 2009 Defrag Shootout, and all the defragmentation utilities I can find

The 2009 Defrag Shootout is now under way, and results are posted as they come in. It takes time to get these results, because testing is done on Windows XP, Windows Vista 32-bit and Vista 64-bit environments, and numerous tests are carried out. Windows 7 testing will be added only once the final product actually ships.

• Windows Disk Defragmenter: Version 5.1.2600.5512 supplied in Windows XP.

Check below for information on other packages, and the 2007 winners of the previous "Great Defrag Shootout".

Read more at Insights and Rants

Roadside Emergency Kit
Even if you faithfully follow our 10 maintenance tips, some breakdowns are unavoidable. Do yourself a favor and save some room in your trunk for the following items. They could turn a potential trip-wrecker into nothing more than an unexpected pit stop:

• Screwdrivers and wrenches of various sizes
• Jumper cables
• A jack and tire iron
• A can of "Fix-a-Flat" for temporarily sealing and inflating a flat tire
• Water for both the radiator and yourself
• Emergency flares and reflectors
• Gloves
• Blanket and towel
• Flashlight [source: CBS News]

Read more at HowStuffWorks.com

Wipe Your Feet

2.22.09 BY David Rupert

Article:

As a boy, my mother routinely reminded us to wipe our feet when we dashed into the house at full speed. She rarely even looked up as we came in. She just knew that brother and I would have dirty shoes.

Mom had good reason for concern. The empty lots and open fields were our playgrounds. And on the way home from our ventures, we walked through every mud puddle.

As an adult, I still clean my shoes before entering my home after a long day at school or work. I don't need my mother to remind me anymore—I get it because I pay for the carpet.

Recently, I've been thinking about the symbolism of removing the dirt from the world before entering my home. For years, I collected bad attitudes and negativity from the work world and brought them home to my young family. They never knew what my mood was going to be. Silently, hesitantly, they would size me up.

"What kind of day did he have? Can I tell him my problems? Can I share some good news? Will he snap at me for no reason?”

Read more at The High Calling

Poka-Yoke: A Misunderstood Concept

Shigeo Shingo introduced the concept of poka-yoke in 1961, when he was an industrial engineer at Toyota Motor Corporation. The initial term was baka-yoke, which means ‘fool-proofing’. In 1963, a worker at Arakawa Body Company refused to use baka-yoke mechanisms in her work area, because of the term’s dishonourable and offensive connotation. Hence, the term was changed to poka-yoke, which means ‘mistake-proofing’.

Poka-yokes are mechanisms used to mistake-proof an entire process. Ideally, poka-yokes ensure that proper conditions exist before actually executing a process step, preventing defects from occurring in the first place. Where this is not possible, poka-yokes perform a detective function, eliminating defects in the process as early as possible.

Read more at Manage Mentor

Got my new Nokia E51 last week. It's quite a nice smartphone. I've been a Windows Mobile user for many years and I though I'd never go back to Nokia. But with my E51, I'm finding that I could do as much as with my Windows Mobile phones.

I'm compiling some useful websites here:

http://www.getjar.com -- lots of free java applications and games
http://www.noeman.org/gsm -- Symbian apps and games forum
http://kma.mv/forum/ -- Symbian apps and games forum
htttp://dailymobile.se/ -- Daily Mobile forum. Your all-in-one phone blog
http://www.persian-forums.com/ -- Symbian forum
http://www.symbian-freeware.com/ -- free Symbian software
http://www.mobilecastle.biz/mobiles/ -- another smartphone forum
http://www.finestfones.com/
http://free-ngage-downloads.blogspot.com/
http://pinoy-symbian.com/ -- nice pinoy forum with a good number of applications
http://www.fillmobile.com/ -- free mobile software
http://www.mobile9.com/ -- online destination to share and download FREE content for your mobile phone

It pays for companies to take care of talent
By Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:22:00 07/06/2009

MANILA, Philippines - The economic downturn is forcing businesses to cut costs here and there, sometimes going to the painful extent of letting people go.

While this may make sense at the onset, enterprises should think twice, thrice, 10 times before doing something that drastic.

The People Management Association of the Philippines says businesses should focus on strengthening their human resource if they want to be able to ride the recovery wave when it comes.

In a presentation at the Philippine International Franchise Conference and Expo 2009 last week, PMAP president and Corporate Executive Search managing director Grace Abella-Zata said the best route was to combine “buying, building and borrowing” talents.

Read more at Philippine Daily Inquirer Money

Chaos Theology

Finding hope in the midst of the terror of creation.

Mark Galli | posted 6/18/2009 11:32AM

The cover story for the July/August issue of The Atlantic is titled, "The Ideas Issue: How to Fix the World." The article addresses, among other things, the housing mess, the Afghanistan war, the collapsing environment, illegal immigration, and homeland insecurity. A subtext of many of the entries is international terrorism, the most dreadful and symbolic of global threats. These are all but snapshots of the terrible panorama of blood, fire, smoke, and darkness of the present world order.

Except that the word order hardly applies. It's chaos we're living in, and we are weary and sometimes frightened. Among the many filmmakers who paint this reality in vivid hues are the Coen brothers. Their movies always feature a character who brings chaos to the world. Yet whereas in early films, chaos is always brought under control (in Fargo, for example, police chief Marge Gunderson captures the cold-blooded killer Gaer Grimstud), at the end of their last film, No Country for Old Men, chaos is still on the loose.

Read more at Christianity Today

5 Traits: What Makes A Good Leader?
Posted on November 18th, 2008
http://pinoybusiness.org/2008/11/18/5-traits-what-makes-a-good-leader/

What makes a good leader? Why are some leaders more effective than others? Leaders lead their team to victories. And most of all leaders make leaders out of their members. But how can you gauge a good leader? What makes them tick? Below are just some of the things which I believe a leader do that makes them a successful one:

1. Real leaders listen. A smart leader accepts that he does not know all the answers, that is why they listen to their people. By listening to their people, not only do they learn more and see things from a different perspective, it also encourages their people. Their people learn to speak their mind, be it something that might contradict the leader’s thought, because it put the member in a position which takes risk and responsibility. A quality of a future leader.

2. A leader connect to his people. A leader can relate to his people, and his people can relate to him. This only means that he knows his people, their interests, their families, their hobbies, and his people know his heart. He does not hide behind a tough emotion-less façade, because while it may earn him respect, it will be brought about by fear and therefore may not get their loyalty.

3. A leader is a good teacher. A leader teaches his people, and usually he does this by example. But most all a leader’s thirst for knowledge rubs off in his people, that is why they also aspire to learn more as their try to emulate their leader.

4. A leader develop his people. Aside from just teaching them, an effective leader develops his people to be future effective leaders as well. That is why he help bring out the best in them.

5. A leader motivates. What’s the difference between development and motivation? When you develop your people, they will be motivated. More so when you listen, connect to and teach them. Motivation is not a one-time effort, it is a conscious sustained action to help his people aspire for more, tap their hidden talent and train them so that they will be ready when it’s their turn to carry the torch.

Why Sing Hymns

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16)

The trend today is to replace traditional hymns with contemporary praise choruses. This is not a good trend, especially for youth and new believers who need a strong doctrinal focus. Hymns present clear expressions of the knowledge of God and biblical truth. Col. 3:16 admonishes— Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Read more at Surf-in-the-Spirit

Hymn Singing

December 31, 2002 AM
By Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn
From: Biblical Worship

Over the past twenty-five years, the American evangelical church has moved away from the hymns we sing at Faith Presbyterian Church. What are now widely referred to as “praise songs” have replaced the hymns that had been sung in Protestant worship for many generations.

Churches began to sing these songs, often putting the text before the congregation by means of an overhead projector, in hopes that their worship would be more accessible to the ordinary American who, it was thought, found the established church music alien, dull, and hard to sing. So complete has been the transition in many churches that the rising generation of Christians is now largely unfamiliar with the literature of Christian hymns.

Read more at faithacoma.org

BlogSpotting: Time Management for Leaders

Keeping the main thing the main thing.
Tim Avery

One of my colleagues recently pointed me to the blog of Barry Werner, whose background includes serving as director of operations for World Wide Pictures at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. In his entries, Werner has been walking through the Old Testament and considering how different leadership principles are represented in the passages he reads.

One of his recent posts—which he relates to Numbers 33—addresses the issue of self-discipline. He's primarily talking about time management, and I found this line to be the most helpful:

The essence of self-discipline is to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing.

An urgent task, after all, is easy to discern. All you have to know is the deadline, and how much time will be needed to accomplish it. In fact, an urgent task is almost impossible to ignore.

But an important task—well, to discern that requires a bigger-picture perspective, something quickly lost on a busy afternoon. Without a concrete deadline to remind us or compel us, we let it slide. So what do you do to clarify your daily priorities and stick to them?

Tim Avery is the associate editor of BuildingChurchLeaders.com.

Posted by Tim Avery at 1:55 PM on June 15, 2009 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

Read more at Building Church Leaders

'I Stayed'

There's power in knowing you and your spouse are in it for the long haul.

Christy Scannell

One of the advantages of living in San Diego, aside from the fantastic weather, is that we have two theaters that stage Broadway-bound shows, both to test how they fare with audiences and to get out the kinks before hitting the Great White Way. In the last few years I've seen several of these big productions, some winners (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and others not (The Full Monty).

A few years ago, my husband, Rich, and I zipped over to the Old Globe Theatre to take in A Catered Affair. We agreed the musical had its plusses and minuses, but one of the standouts was Tom Wopat (yes, that guy from the Dukes of Hazzard) singing a lump-in-the-throat-inducing number, "I Stayed."

To understand the impact of this song, you have to know that Wopat plays a 1950s middle-aged husband whose wife, among other issues, is accusing Wopat's character of having never really loved her. They married because she was pregnant, so she always suspected he rather would have been anywhere but with her. Now that their daughter is marrying and moving out of their home, she frets over what kind of life she will have with this man who only tolerates her.

Read more at Christianity Today Marriage Partnership

Master the Art of Working Remotely
Gina Trapani, Work Smarter

10:23 AM Tuesday June 16, 2009


Over the past five years I've worked off-site and online for employers across the country using email, chat, and web-based collaboration apps. My work life has been the envy of my traditional nine-to-five friends. While they suit up in an office-appropriate outfit, grab the briefcase, and brave a commute every weekday, I get to work from home (and my employers get to save money on office space).

But working with people in different cities and time zones with minimal face time presents a whole new set of challenges. While the tools available for working remotely are better than ever, it's how you use them that really counts. Constant and clear communication is the key to a good remote working relationship. Here are some best practices I've found for working remotely online.

Read more at Harvard Business Publishing

How To Spot an Email Hoax
By David Emery, About.com

Without researching the factual claims made in a forwarded email there's no 100 percent sure way to tell it if it's a hoax, but here you'll find a list of common signs to watch for...

Here's How:

Note whether the text you've received was actually written by the person who sent it. Did anyone sign their name to it? If not, be skeptical.

Read more at Urban Legends

Conversation starters with your wife

Try out these questions on your spouse: What is your favorite memory of our dating days? What is your best memory of your mother? Your father? What are your three favorite movies of all time? What's the one thing you'd like to be remembered for? If you had more time, what hobby would you like to pursue? What living person, other than family members, do you admire most? What's your idea of a perfect night out - or in? If you could only spend $10 on a date night, what would you do?

Print out these questions and ask her tonight. You might learn something about her you never knew before!

Why does your marriage matter so much to your kids? Find out here.

Huddle up and ask your wife tonight: Mind if I ask you a couple of questions?

© 2009 Family First. All Rights Reserved.

Marital Interaction By: Ken Canfield

One of the best things a father can do for his kids is love their mother and build a strong marriage. The effort you put into your marriage is worth it to your children. To prove that, I'm going right to the source. Just listen to this sixth grade girl who wrote about her father for one of our essay contests. She writes: Everybody in my family has had to put up a lot with all the things that have gone wrong. One thing about this divorce is that when I go over to my friends' house to spend the night or something, their fathers usually come in and say, "good-night," not "good-bye." When my father comes over to get something and he is about to leave, he always comes over and kisses me on the cheek and then says "good-bye," and walks out. And it hurts a lot. Sometimes I want to just cry. I wish this never happened. . . This girl feels the pain so deeply that she is tuned in to subtle nuances like the difference between "good-night" and "good-bye." Her father may see her regularly and show her physical affection, but still the dominant images of her father will always bring her pain. Read more a All Pro Dad

10 tips for swine flu planning

As the swine flu outbreak spreads, CIOs and other IT executives are dusting off their pandemic plans. Here are some tips. By Carolyn Duffy Marsan
30 Apr 2009

FRAMINGHAM, 29 APRIL 2009 - As the swine flu outbreak spreads, CIOs and other IT executives are dusting off their pandemic plans and preparing for the possibility of high levels of employee absenteeism and extended telework scenarios.

The swine flu threat comes at a time when IT shops are already stretched thin as a result of layoffs and other cutbacks because of the ongoing recession. We talked to several experts in the business continuity and IT operations, and here's the advice they are offering CIOs:

1. Stay calm. Model the behavior you want to see from your employees. This includes continuing to be productive but also shoring up your supplies of hand sanitizer and bottled water. "What CIOs and other managers of a company have to do is say this is business as usual, but practice better personal hygiene," says Richard De Lotto, principal analyst in Gartner's Banking and Investment Industries Advisory Services Group. "Other people will pick up on the examples set by executives."

Read more at MIS Asia